USA TODAY Column: …I’ve changed my mind. Lift the ban on Rose, and put his plaque in the Hall, I now say. History has bypassed his transgressions. After 25 years in exile, he has suffered enough. Rose’s sins seem trivial now compared with the crimes against the game that have happened subsequently. But Rose remains in a category of one, banned from the game and hounded as a pariah. That is now profoundly unfair…
Rose bet on baseball games quite a lot when he managed the Reds. He knew full well he was committing a felony, and he was associating with some pretty unsavory characters. But there’s no evidence that he ever bet against his own team. He never changed a lineup or ordered a pointless stolen base so he could score a big day with his bookie. A thrill seeker, he suffered from an addiction. But he loved the game, perhaps as much as any player ever did…
His extraordinary record as the all-time hit king is the product of comparatively modest baseball skills. His 4,256 hits were fairly achieved, uncorrupted by any performance enhancers in his blood stream. Rose is beloved by his fans as “Charlie Hustle” precisely because he had to hustle more than anyone to keep up with the graceful, elegant athletes all around him. It is a compulsion that is every bit as American as baseball itself… (more)
EDITOR: We second the motion!
